Adrien-Marie Legendre

Adrien-Marie Legendre was a French mathematician in the 18th and early 19th centuries known for his significant contributions to number theory, astronomy, and mathematical analysis. He developed methods crucial to the study of elliptic functions and formulated the Legendre polynomials, important in physics and engineering. His work laid the foundation for many modern mathematical concepts. Legendre is also famous for the least squares method, a technique still used today to minimize errors in data fitting. His contributions have had a lasting impact on both theoretical and applied mathematics.